Historically rice-farming societies have tighter social norms in China and worldwide
| Autor: | Thomas Talhelm, Alexander S. English |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2020 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Irrigation China Social Sciences Norm of reciprocity subsistence style Young Adult Urbanization Development economics Social Norms Humans East Asia Rice farming Rice farmers Triticum Farmers Multidisciplinary business.industry Agriculture Oryza tightness–looseness Middle Aged culture Geography Psychological and Cognitive Sciences Female Norm (social) Rural area business norms rice theory Regional differences |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 0027-8424 |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1909909117 |
| Popis: | Significance Rice is a highly interdependent crop. Rice required far more labor than dryland crops like wheat, and rice’s irrigation networks forced farmers to coordinate water use. To deal with these demands, rice villages developed strong norms for labor exchange. Using China as a natural test case, we compare nearby provinces that differ in rice and wheat, but share the same ethnicity, religion, and national government. In survey data from over 11,000 Chinese citizens, rice-farming provinces report tighter norms than traditionally wheat-growing provinces. Rice also predicts tight norms around the world. These data suggest that China’s agricultural past still shapes cultural differences in the modern day—and perhaps explain why East Asia has tighter social norms than the wheat-growing West. Data recently published in PNAS mapped out regional differences in the tightness of social norms across China [R. Y. J. Chua, K. G. Huang, M. Jin, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 116, 6720–6725 (2019)]. Norms were tighter in developed, urbanized areas and weaker in rural areas. We tested whether historical paddy rice farming has left a legacy on social norms in modern China. Premodern rice farming could plausibly create strong social norms because paddy rice relied on irrigation networks. Rice farmers coordinated their water use and kept track of each person’s labor contributions. Rice villages also established strong norms of reciprocity to cope with labor demands that were twice as high as dryland crops like wheat. In line with this theory, China’s historically rice-farming areas had tighter social norms than wheat-farming areas, even beyond differences in development and urbanization. Rice–wheat differences were just as large among people in 10 neighboring provinces (n = 3,835) along the rice–wheat border. These neighboring provinces differ sharply in rice and wheat, but little in latitude, temperature, and other potential confounding variables. Outside of China, rice farming predicted norm tightness in 32 countries around the world. Finally, people in rice-farming areas scored lower on innovative thinking, which tends to be lower in societies with tight norms. This natural test case within China might explain why East Asia—historically reliant on rice farming—has tighter social norms than the wheat-farming West. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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